


The Exceptions to the Rule

by tattoosanta



Series: Alternate Universes [6]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Blood Loss, Blood and Injury, Cat Ears, Cat People AU, Cat/Human Hybrids, Gen, Scratching, warning is just there bc... u know... just to be safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 13:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4921522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tattoosanta/pseuds/tattoosanta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atsushi was a big guy, and he wasn't very sensitive. However, there were exceptions to that rule. Seijuurou finds out one rather quickly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Exceptions to the Rule

**Author's Note:**

> The title is bad and I'm really sorry about that, but it's almost one in the morning and I can't think of anything better to name it.  
> So enjoy my dumb AU fic I didn't think I'd get done.

Atsushi was a big guy. As such, his ears and tail were also rather large. Proportionate to his body, but still very large. They weren’t very sensitive either--probably a result of living with five older siblings in a rowdy household. He’d gotten desensitized to the pain of having his tail yanked on for the most part; someone could yank with all their might and he still wouldn’t give anything but perhaps just a whiney “ow” in response. There were exceptions to this; however, and naturally sometimes it did hurt. He didn’t always have the best reaction to said pulling, either; so people tended to avoid touching his tail unless they were asked to. 

Seijuurou, one of Atsushi’s very favorite people, was one of the exceptions to the rule. He could touch Atsushi’s tail all he wanted, even if it was to tug on it in indignation or to get him to do something. That was a rare occurrence, though, since he didn’t really enjoy it when the actions were reciprocated. Really, he tended to keep his hands to himself unless he truly needed something from Atsushi. 

Today was one of the rare days he needed something, and it wasn’t his normal request either. “Atsushi,” he started as he approached the giant in the locker rooms after practice. He already had his Winter jacket and a scarf on, and was currently situating his messenger bag on his shoulder. “It was requested of me this morning that I ask someone to walk me home through the storm today. Would you mind?” 

Atsushi thought for a moment. He wondered if it was worth the extra walking, then reasoned that it was okay because it meant he got to spend time with Seijuurou that was outside school and practice. “Okay~” He nodded, his ears twitching happily. It was rare for Seijuurou to ask anyone to walk him home, and to ask Atsushi of all people was practically unheard of. The purple haired boy felt ecstatic because of the request. “Just gimme a sec to get my coat on~” 

“No rush.” Seijuurou shook his head and held up a hand, a small smile coming to his face. He was patient, much unlike Atsushi, and would wait for the other to get his jacket on and tell him he was ready to leave. “I’m not in a hurry to get out there.” For once, a hint of humor laced the typically stoic captain’s voice, and his statement was accompanied by a soft chuckle. 

Atsushi smiled as he zipped up his coat. “Okay, Aka-chin, let’s go.” He slung his bag lazily over his shoulder and started toward the door, leaving Seijuurou to follow him. “The sooner we get you home, the quicker you can warm up.” Which, of course, was true. He knew small people like Seijuurou froze rather quickly in the snow and wanted to minimize the time they spent in the storm. “But be careful, there’s ice~”

“I understand.” Seijuurou nodded and followed after Atsushi at a bit of a distance. “Thank you for the warning, Atsushi.” He readjusted his scarf a little higher on his neck and braced himself for the snow that was sure to come flying at him the moment the door was opened. 

Sure enough, when Atsushi opened the heavy locker room door, a flurry of snow came in with the sudden wind and blew into both of their faces. Atsushi whined a little and shook the snow off him before stepping outside--into more snow. Seijuurou rolled his eyes and followed after him. “Why shake the snow off if all you’re going to do is go back into it?” 

“I dunno.” Atsushi answered honestly. “Probably an automatic reaction.” He shrugged and shoved his hands into his coat pockets to keep them from freezing, then began walking down the sidewalk to the front gate of the school. He nearly slipped on a patch of ice he didn’t quite notice, but caught his balance and frowned. “Seriously, Aka-chin, you gotta be careful.” 

“I will, Atsushi.” Seijuurou responded as he made his way toward the giant through the thin layer of snow covering the ground. He was already cold, and they had only just left the locker room. He silently wished he was bigger, just enough so he wasn’t always freezing like that. “Don’t worry about me. If you want to carry on ahead, wait for me at the gate.” 

“Nah,” Atsushi shook his head. “I’m gonna wait for Aka-chin to catch up to me so I can keep him warm.” He shuffled a little bit and began to absently write things in the snow with the tip of his shoe. His tail flicked about lazily as Seijuurou began to make his way toward him, and he sort of started to zone out. 

The redhead sighed a little bit as he carefully maneuvered over the thick patches of ice that had formed over the course of the day. He ended up needing to keep his hands out of his pockets in order to maintain his balance on most of them, and slowly but surely made his way to the taller boy. “Thank you for your patience.” He muttered through nearly chattering teeth. 

Just when he thought he had gotten over the patch of ice nearest to Atsushi, Seijuurou felt his feet begin to slip out from underneath him on a bit of black ice he didn’t catch. Instinctively, he reached out to grab something and steady himself. The only thing close enough to him just happened to be Atsushi’s tail, so he latched onto it and attempted to steady himself with it--only to end up pulling much too hard with his claws dug in. 

“Ow!” Atsushi yelped and turned toward Seijuurou once the point guard righted himself. Without thinking, he raised his hand--claws unsheathed--and swiped forcefully downward. “That hurts!” 

Seijuurou didn’t feel anything at first. In fact, he would’ve compared the feeling to that of being numb. Then, there was the sensation of something warm flowing down his cheek and onto his neck and scarf. He could no longer see anything out of his left eye--as though someone had covered it with their hand--and the world felt like it was spinning twice as fast. “A-Ah…” 

It took a moment for everything to come up to speed for Atsushi as well, and when he saw the bright red drops of blood hit the snow beneath Seijuurou’s feet, his eyes widened. He stared for a moment at the bleeding boy in front of him, then down to his hand; which was also partially covered in blood. He felt his face twist into a scowl, partially disgusted with himself, partially upset for Seijuurou’s sake. “Aka-chin, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” 

“Huh…?” Seijuurou asked and blinked slowly at Atsushi. He could feel his breathing get more rapid and tried desperately to slow it down, to no avail. His attention was brought to the blood on the center’s hand, and he frowned. “Atsushi… what happened? Why is your hand bloody?” 

Atsushi’s scowl deepened and he stared hard at Seijuurou. He didn’t want to admit what he’d done, so he crossed his arms and shook his head. “Aka-chin should come here so I can take him to the hospital… He’ll die if he just stands there like that.” 

Seijuurou’s eyes widened a little bit and he brought one of his hands up to his face. He winced when he touched the open wounds on his cheek, and soon his hand was just as bloody as his face and neck. “Is that… my blood…?” His voice was soft, almost incoherent, and sounded slightly anxious. “Atsushi… did you…?” 

“Yeah…” Atsushi muttered. “I’m really sorry, Aka-chin, but we gotta go to the hospital before you lose too much blood.” He held his hand out for Seijuurou to take and nodded toward him, hoping the redhead would come close without him needing to go get him. He was upset enough, he didn’t want to make it worse. “Just put some pressure on the wound…” 

Seijuurou nodded and pressed his bloody hand back to his cheek weakly. The spinning sensation he had gotten when Atsushi first swiped across his face came back, this time much more intense, and he felt himself start to sway despite using his tail to attempt to keep himself standing straight. His knees went weak for a moment and he stumbled forward a little bit. “Atsushi… I don’t think--” His sentence was cut off by the creeping sensation of losing consciousness. The last thing he remembered was Atsushi’s panicked scream, then his eyes closed and everything was quiet. 

\----------------

The first thing Seijuurou heard when he regained consciousness was sniffling from beside him. Something--a bandage, probably--was obstructing the left side of his face; including his eye, and his entire head felt like it had been split open, then glued back together. He blinked a few times to clear what little vision he had, and he realized he was in the hospital. When all of his senses had returned to him, a new wave of pain washed over him and elicited an uncomfortable whimper. 

The sniffling beside him stopped for a second as Atsushi’s ears perked up. His eyes were red and swollen, there were clear tear tracks down his cheeks, and his ears were laid back; clearly he was upset about the whole ordeal. “Aka-chin…?” His voice was scratchy and low, barely above a whisper just in case Seijuurou wasn’t actually awake. 

“A...Atsushi…” Seijuurou croaked out finally and turned his head a bit to look at the crying boy beside his bed. What little movement his mouth did sent new, sharp pains up through the rest of his face and he found he’d rather not, but he wanted to talk to Atsushi for just a bit. Maybe whatever pain killer the nurses had put in the IV would kick in soon. “Why are you crying…?” 

“B-Because…” Atsushi whined and wiped tears from his eyes with the backs of his hands. “I hurt Aka-chin…” By the looks and sounds of it, he’d been crying for a while; probably since Seijuurou had passed out. “I’m really, really sorry for scratching you… are you okay…?” 

Seijuurou stopped a moment and thought. He was in a lot of pain, but he also felt a little better than he had when the incident first happened. Truly, he had no idea. “...I think so.” He muttered after a moment. “It hurts… but I’ll probably be fine.” He took a deep, shaky breath and looked Atsushi in the eye as best he could. “...Atsushi…” 

“Yeah…?” Atsushi asked quietly, sort of shrinking into his chair. “What is it, Aka-chin?” He was almost too scared to find out what it was Seijuurou had wanted. “Are you mad because I scratched you…?”

Seijuurou shook his head slowly. “No… but I want you to promise me one thing.” He said, a little more volume to his voice. “I want you to promise me… you won’t beat yourself up about this.” It might’ve been a little far-fetched for him to ask that of Atsushi, but he didn’t want anyone worrying incessantly over him while he was in the hospital. “Okay…?” 

“Okay…” Atsushi nodded a bit. He noticed Seijuurou’s drooping eyelid and began to shuffle around a little bit like he was getting ready to leave. “...Aka-chin looks tired, so I’m gonna leave and let him sleep.” He stood quickly and pushed the chairs against the wall where he found them, then grabbed his bag. 

“Oh… Alright.” Seijuurou nodded and held up his hand weakly to wave goodbye to Atsushi. “...Take care, Atsushi…” He stifled a yawn and let his hand drop back down to his side and he stared absently at a spot beside Atsushi on the door. 

“Bye-bye, Aka-chin. I’ll come visit tomorrow and talk to you about what you missed at practice...” Atsushi mumbled and quickly left the room, clearly eager to get out of the hospital. Maybe seeing the bandages and being around the person he hurt made him more upset. 

Seijuurou found he didn’t have the energy to think too hard about it. He stopped resisting the closing of his eye and succumbed once again to unconsciousness.


End file.
